1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates in general to a network device and a communication method thereof, and more particularly to a low power consumption network device and a communication method thereof.
2. Background
Ethernet network is a widely used technology in local area network (LAN) for connecting a personal computer to a local area network. A basic unit of data transmission in Ethernet network is a packet. A switch is a most widely used bridge in a local area network, and examples of other bridges include router.
The switch includes multiple ports coupled to a personal computer, a notebook computer or other bridges. After a port of the switch receives a packet, the switch selects an appropriate destination port according to the destination address of the packets and further transfers the packet to the destination port.
In a normal operating mode, each port of the switch monitors whether a packet is received and further processes the received packet, and such operations incur power consumption. However, not all the ports receive packet all the time. When packet flow is very low or even nil, it is a waste of energy if the switch is still ready for receiving packets. When packet flow is low and normal operations still need to be maintained, the network device has to maintain at power-ON state all the time. In fact, the period that the network device receives or transmits data is very short, and it is a waste of energy.
Therefore, an embodiment of the disclosure provides a low power consumption network device, which effectively saves power consumption without causing network congestion when the network device and its link partner are both in an OFF state or a power saving mode.